Title: Multi-criteria route choice in road networks

Authors: Evangelos Mitsakis; Josep-Maria Salanova Grau; Evangelia Chrysohoou; Iraklis Stamos; Georgia Aifadopoulou

Addresses: Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Hellenic Institute of Transport, 6th km Charilaou-Thermi Road, 57001, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece ' Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Hellenic Institute of Transport, 6th km Charilaou-Thermi Road, 57001, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece ' Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Hellenic Institute of Transport, 6th km Charilaou-Thermi Road, 57001, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece ' Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Hellenic Institute of Transport, 6th km Charilaou-Thermi Road, 57001, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece ' Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Hellenic Institute of Transport, 6th km Charilaou-Thermi Road, 57001, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: Road transport networks are primarily used for serving the travellers' daily demand for trips. This demand has been increasing substantially, up to levels where the existing capacity offered by road transport networks cannot anymore satisfy it. The decisions of drivers regarding the choice of their preferred route, in order to execute their trips between given origin and destination points within the road transport network, may in reality vary from the distance or free-flow travel time-based choices. This can be especially the case during congested traffic conditions. Under congested traffic conditions, the behaviour of all drivers regarding their route choices results to user equilibrium (UE) conditions. Under UE conditions, all routes used by drivers travelling between two points have equal and minimal costs, according to Wardrop's first principle. In the present paper the effects of multiple route choice criteria are investigated and discussed, including fuel consumption, besides the commonly used distance and time.

Keywords: traffic assignment; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; utility theory; route choice; road networks; road transport; driver decisions; preferred route; driver preferences; traffic congestion; fuel consumption; distance; time; driver choice; route selection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIDS.2015.068114

International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences, 2015 Vol.7 No.1, pp.3 - 17

Published online: 31 Mar 2015 *

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